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PA Counties locked down

Governor Tom Wolf has issued a stay-at-home order for several Pennsylvania counties, including Monroe, following the report of six deaths due to COVID-19 and a surge in case numbers in the Commonwealth.

On Monday, Wolf announced that he was issuing a stay-at-home order to Pennsylvania counties where COVID-19 outbreaks had occurred thus far.

“The city of Philadelphia has already issued a stay-in-place order, and I am issuing a stay-at-home order for six more counties right now,” Wolf said. “Beginning at 8 p.m. tonight, if you live in Allegheny, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Monroe or Montgomery counties, you must stay in your homes unless not staying in your home endangers your life.”

Wolf later clarified the order to officially include Philadelphia County.

The order will stay in effect for two weeks, Wolf said. School closures and other mitigation efforts will be extended for another two weeks.

Wolf said the government will assist businesses to keep supply chains open so Pennsylvanians will have access to food and necessary supplies. Grocery stores, pharmacies, and other life-sustaining services will remain open. Wolf said that residents should limit their excursions to purchasing food and medication, or absolute emergencies.

Curfews will not be enforced, though Wolf emphasized that it is imperative that residents in the affected counties stay home as much as possible.

“This is not a request I make lightly,” Wolf said. “Pennsylvania is the birthplace of American freedom. Our economy and our way of life were built on this freedom, and it is this freedom I seek to preserve in our fight against COVID-19.”

On Monday, Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine announced the surge in COVID-19 cases in the Commonwealth, along with several newly-reported deaths.

“As of 12 a.m. this morning, we have 165 new cases of COVID-19, bringing our statewide total to 644 Pennsylvanians who have tested positive in 34 counties. Yesterday, we had a 108 new cases per day, and today, we have 165 new cases per day. Approximately 60 Pennsylvanians have required hospitalization since March 6, when we first confirmed our cases of COVID-9. This is about 10% of people who have tested positive,” Levine said.

The Commonwealth’s case load includes 43 patients in Monroe County, seven in Lackawanna, 25 in Lehigh, 10 in Luzerne, 23 in Northampton, three in Pike and three in Wayne, while 6,595 individuals have tested negative thus far.

“Tragically, we have had six Pennsylvanians die as a result of this virus,” Levine said. “They are all adults. We have had one death in Allegheny County, one death in Lackawanna County, one death in Monroe County, one in Montgomery County, and two in Northampton County.”

The Monroe County death from COVID-19 was confirmed by Coroner Tom Yanac on Sunday. On Monday, Yanac stated that he had reported the death to the Department of Health.

Wolf sympathized with Pennsylvania residents, acknowledging that the mitigation measures have been incredibly intrusive in their everyday lives, but noting that those measures are necessary to buy valuable time to stem the spread of COVID-19 in order to avoid overwhelming hospitals and health systems.

“Clearly, this is not a great answer, but it is all we have until our health system gets the stock of protective equipment like beds, ventilators are other things our system needs to treat people with this disease,” Wolf said. “The only way we can buy time is to distance ourselves from others. So please, let’s work together to buy this time.”

Levine concurred, pointing out that without said measures, “we would anticipate a large surge of cases as was seen in Italy and other areas,” which could easily overwhelm hospitals and health systems in the Commonwealth.

Wolf noted that the Pennsylvania government will take a “measured approach, but we’re taking decisive action” in order to stem outbreaks of COVID-19 in the counties where it has spread quickly, though in order to be successful, Pennsylvanians will have to comply with the mitigation efforts to save lives.

“I won’t pretend things will not get worse before they get better,” Wolf said. “But what I will promise is that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania will do everything in its power to help businesses and workers during this catastrophe. The point is, before we can recover we must survive, and to do that, every one of us must do our part.”

Last edited by Noah_Zark; March 28th, 2020 at 09:40 AM.
Reason: Updated title

Re: Six Counties locked down

Curfews will not be enforced, though Wolf emphasized that it is imperative that residents in the affected counties stay home as much as possible.

“This is not a request I make lightly,” Wolf said. “Pennsylvania is the birthplace of American freedom. Our economy and our way of life were built on this freedom, and it is this freedom I seek to preserve in our fight against COVID-19.”

Re: Six Counties locked down

More people will be harmed and will die by the orders of the governor than if they catch the flu going around. At some point the adults will have to take control of this and order the governor to stand down so less people are harmed by him and his confused medical person.

​Masks are being used to promote fear in order to demonstrate control.

Re: Six Counties locked down

So is this going to be the new "blueprint" of how our government deals with future disasters? Government "determines" there is too many deaths in an area, orders a "timeout" for everyone who lives in the county/region/city?

What's next: check everyone's "papers" to ensure we belong where we are, and search homes for what government defines as "hoarding" critical supplies? At what point do they redefine what is hoarding, and what is critical? Are we going to see a "bounty" for turning in names of suspected sick people?

This has the potential to turn into a Leftists wet dream of recreating East Germany, or Cold War era Poland. It's not what the government does right now, but what they think they can do again, in the future, when some other "event" happens and they feel they can replay the rules they are using now, but with even more restrictions.

Re: Six Counties locked down

A Constitutional Perspective

================================================I am an American constitutional lawyer – and I see our government
using Covid-19 to take away our fundamental rights
22 Mar, 2020 11:46
By Robert Barnes, American constitutional lawyer representing high-profile clients in civil and criminal trials, and known for his prescient political prognostications in American and international elections.

Do we really think “it can’t happen here” in America? Could we quarantine the constitution? Are we doing it already?

Panics from pandemics unleash unchecked governmental power. The very premise of popular films like V for Vendetta reveal this: a group uses a virus to seize power and create a totalitarian society. Anyone could witness this from far-off lands, watching the news about China locking people up in their own homes and then removing them screaming from those homes whenever the state wanted. World War I and the Great Depression birthed virulent forms of governments with leaders like Hitler, Mao, Mussolini and Stalin.

Governments across America already used the pandemic, and the media-stoked panic around the pandemic particularly, to limit, restrict or remove First Amendment freedoms of speech and free association, with officials complaining about the potential restraints the freedom of religion imposed upon them. Others denied or declared the right to deny Second Amendment rights of gun purchase for personal safety (at a time governments are issuing no-arrest and no-detention orders for a wide range of crimes in their community while publicly freeing inmates from jails and prisons). They want to coordinate with tech companies to surveil and spy on your everyday movements and activities, in violation of the Fourth Amendment and potentially waive, unilaterally, your medical right to privacy in multiple contexts. Stay-at-home orders deprive you of your profession, occupation, business and property, without any due process of law at all beyond an executive fiat in violation of the Fifth Amendment right to due process. Governments request the authority to involuntarily imprison any American on mere fear of infection without any probable cause of crime or clear and present danger of harm by that person’s volitional conduct, deny access to personal counsel in an unsupervised, un-surveilled manner in violation of the Sixth Amendment, and act as judge, jury and executioner in violation of the Seventh Amendment right to a trial by jury, as jury trials themselves get suspended around the country in the nation’s quieted courts and fear-muted public.

The real pandemic threat is here. It’s the panic that will quarantine our Constitution.

First Amendment Quarantined?

Already, governments in America suspended the First Amendment freedom of millions of citizens with shutdown, stay-at-home, curfew orders that prohibit obtaining a petition for a public protest, or even being physically present for a public protest. Indeed, even meetings in “more than ten” are prohibited by various governing jurisdictions within the United States. Surprising places like Missouri did so. Towns like Hartford did so. Maryland soon followed suit. The effect of the stay-at-home orders of New York, California, Nevada, Illinois and Pennsylvania effectively achieve the same outcome. Other governing officials recognized the dubious lawlessness of these orders, but remain outliers. Remember the Hong Kong protests? Gone. Remember the Yellow Vest protests? Soon to be gone. Seen any protests on American streets today? A pandemic is here. Protests gone. Constitution quarantined.

Second Amendment Quarantined?

But that is not all. Under the guise of “unnecessary businesses,” “emergency powers,” or simply by furloughing or reducing staff in the background checks department, governments show the willingness to limit Second Amendment rights as well as First Amendment protections. Mayors declare the right to ban gun sales, governments declare no background-check personnel to process a background check, delaying gun sales indefinitely, and other governments simply shut down all gun sales businesses entirely. Most worrisome, this happens while governments release inmates into the streets, and discussreleasing even more, and, at the same time, issue no-arrest and no-detention orders from Philadelphia to Fort Worth for a wide range of criminals. Want to defend yourself, give yourself a deep sense of personal protection that comes with gun ownership for many, as the Second Amendment safeguards? Well, no luck, according to too many of our governing overlords. A pandemic is here. Self-protection sacrificed. Constitution quarantined.

Fourth Amendment Quarantined?

Few protections are more American than the right to privacy against coerced, compelled, secretive, subversive invasion. The government operates like a virus in a case of a pandemic panic, infecting our minds and bodies, monitoring speech, association and movement, with tools of surveillance unthought-of to the founders. Coordinating with private companies (unrestrained by the Fourth Amendment; why do you think NSA uses them to gather all your emails, conversations, texts, and internet searches, at the first stage?), governments used the panic about the pandemic, a panic the government itself stoked with aid of a compliant, complicit press, to waive your medical privacy and invade your personal privacy, looking for tools to monitor your every movement, associations, activities, and behavior. The watching eye in the sky can now be the Alexa in your home, the camera on your computer, and the phone in your hand. A pandemic is here. Privacy ended. Constitution quarantined.

Fifth Amendment Quarantined?

The protection for our right to make a living arises from the Fifth Amendment right to property without deprivation by due process of law, and the obligation for the government to compensate any such takings. Yet, governments across America did just that to millions of businesses, workers, and property owners, stripping them of their ability to make a living, or even to engage in a free market of commerce, by shutdown orders, curfews, and stay-at-home orders. The political and professional class ensconced in its work-from-home environs fails to appreciate the hardship this imposes on working people. No compensation. No substitution. No wages. No revenues. No opportunity. Labor lost that can never be recovered, ever, while it leaves our economy teetering on the edge of a worst-ever depression. The foundation of government is to protect the pursuit of happiness. Now all we get to pursue is Netflix-and-chill and hope miracles happen to pay next week’s bills, and pray the market doesn’t crash like in 1929. A pandemic is here. Opportunity & property gone. Constitution quarantined.

Conclusion

Our founders were intimately familiar with pandemics, viruses and plagues, yet they did not allow any to suspend our Constitutional liberties. Not one word in the Constitution about plagues or pandemics to exempt the government from any of our Bill of Rights. Why do our current courts allow it? Because the public is asleep at the wheel. Think the pandemic threatens to kills us all? A review of the data shows the pandemic is more panic than plague.

Time to wake up. Maybe it is time in the motto of V for Vendetta, to "Remember, remember the fifth of November, the gunpowder treason and plot." As that film's lead character well said: “People shouldn’t be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people.” Only when an awake public asserts their human liberties to protest the loss of their liberties will, then, governments quit using public health crises to seize power that does not belong to them.

Re: Six Counties locked down

Comments:

I specifically included the source for the previous post - For a matter of factual honesty (something missing from most of the media today). I also included the authors website to allow for additional evaluation of his perspective.

The US media is so liberal, they probably rejected his submission of this piece. He apparently regularly writes submissions for the Washington Post. Although Russia will push anything that creates discord, it is only discordant because America is on such a hysterical tear to overreact that they refuse to consider the more important issues at hand.

It's another indication that America is reacting OUTRAGEOUSLY to this virus that Russia will print (for their own purposes) what should be a very open public debate in America!

Millions (I say Millions) have died thru its history to preserve freedom in America, yet at the drop of a hat, all those deaths mean nothing so we can overreact to this virus that kills less people than typical transportation deaths. The lives given by the patriots are far less valued for their purpose than simply preventing some deaths that may (not guaranteed to) occur from being exposed to this virus.

As in all of life, it is a matter of risk. You can't live without some risk. The US Constitution says WE THE PEOPLE have the Freedom To Choose what risks we are willing to take in the pursuit of Life, Liberty and Happiness.

But politicians are currently choosing to IMPOSE actions that transfer the CHOICE OF RISK from THE PEOPLE to the politicians who are willing (for their own agenda) to TAKE AWAY the freedoms that America was founded upon.

Just because its published by the RT does not mean it's wrong!

================================================

I can't believe the hysterical responses over this. I hope in the end people realize how the media (and their political partners) have blown this all out of proportion to the actuality of life-threatening complications.

In the vacuum of true facts, the panic is damaging our nation & economy.

Besides the most vulnerable (those who are 60+ with existing respiratory problems or who have other existing illnesses that already burden their health), what are the actual facts for everyone else?

* What are the numbers of people getting the virus in each 10-year age group?
* What are their level of illness?
* How are they being treated?

* How many have contracted the virus and have fully recovered in each group?
* What is the death rate in each of the 10-year age groups?

There is little effort to make real facts available to THE PEOPLE and let them decide for themselves what risk they believe is acceptable and what actions, for themselves, is appropriate.

As long as EVERYONE is being treated as if everyone is THE MOST VULNERABLE the panic and hysteria will continue to destroy the fabric of society. Without discernment and differentiation, without considering the true facts, everyone is acting as if getting the virus is a death sentence!

Who will be held responsible for this outrageous assumption and the hysterical reaction? No One - The economy will be in shambles and NO ONE will be to blame. The same old story - Those who take the actions are not held responsible for the consequences.

With such hysterical reactions, how will people 'get back to normal' if there are still cases of the virus within 500 miles? And there will be cases of this virus for a long time - decades I suspect - It will not be eradicated. Someone, somewhere is going to have the virus and it will continue to be passed on to others, just like most other diseases.

After the hysterical damage is done, people will decide they have to go on and live with the risk it represents. They will take reasonable precautions and get on with their lives. Which is exactly what they should have decided at the start of this whole unnecessary panic.

Every day when we get into our cars, and drive more than 500-feet, we are in greater danger of dying than from this virus. Each venture on the roadway relies on others being knowledgeable, reasonable and effective at driving on the same surfaces that we drive on. Yet, we take the risk that some of them are going to do the wrong thing and cause us harm, even death. It's been proven to happen, over and over and over. Yet, we still consider it worth the risk to be mobile and capable of going and doing the appropriate things in life. WE ACCEPT that some people are going to DIE EVERY DAY because we have highways and vehicles.

SO ---- When is enough panic enough?

.................................................. ................. ( I know these two posts are long - But I know YOU HAVE TIME NOW to read them... )